The Bers embedding and the Weil-Petersson metric (Q1813438): Difference between revisions

A local coordinate \(t\in\mathbb{C}^ n\) is \(\omega\)-normal for a Kähler metric \(g\) if the power series expansion in \(t\) of \(g\) has vanishing pure-\(t\) and pure-\(\bar t\) terms. The main result of the paper is: for a compact Riemann surface \(R\) the Bers embedding \(BE\) of the Teichmüller space \(T(R)\) into the space \(Q(\overline R)\) of bounded holomorphic quadratic differentials provides \(\omega\)-normal coordinates for the Weil-Petersson metric (WPm) and is uniquely characterized by this property. The proof is extensive and ingenious, but presented in a very systematic form with all prerequisites, emphasizing principal motivations. Let \(\Lambda\) be the hyperbolic metric on \(R\), \(B(R)\) the space of bounded Beltrami differentials and \(B_{Harm}(R)=\{\mu\in B(R):\mu=\bar q\otimes\Lambda^{-1}\), \(q\in Q(R)\}\) the space of harmonic Beltrami differentials. A global coordinate chart for \(T(R)\) is given by \({\mathcal S}\circ BE\), \({\mathcal S}\) the Ahlfors-Weill section: \(Q(\overline R)\to B_{Harm}(R),\;\Phi\circ({\mathcal S}\circ BE)=1_{T(R)},\text{ where } \Phi:\mu\in B(R),\;\|\mu\|_ 0<1\mapsto\text{ class of } R^ \mu\in T(R).\) By fixing a basis \(\{\mu_ j\}\), \(j=1,\ldots,n\) for \(B_{Harm}(R)\) one obtains a chart with domain in \(\mathbb{C}^ n\) \(t\mapsto\Phi(t)=\Phi\left(\sum^ n_{j=1}t_ j\mu_ j\right)\) and \(\Phi(t)\) will give \(\omega\)-normal coordinates for WPm. The author presents: spaces of symmetric tensors on \(R:S(r)\), metric derivatives \(K_ r\), \(L_ r\) and the \(\overline\partial\)-Laplacian on \(S(r)\), \((B_{Harm}(- 2)=S_{Harm}(-2)=\text{Ker} K_{-2})\), the Hermitian product on \(S(-2):\langle\mu,\nu\rangle=\int_ R\mu\bar\nu\Lambda\), which for \(\mu,\nu\in S_{Harm}(-2)\) defines the WPm and the harmonic (orthogonal) projector \(P:L^ 2\cap S(-2)\to S_{Harm}(-2)\). Ahlfors' results concerning the tangent-cotangent pairing for \(T(R)\) lead to the \(W Pm\) and give its components \[ g_{i\bar j}(t)=\int_{R^ \mu}P^ \mu L^ \mu\mu_ i\overline{P^ \mu L^ \mu\mu_ j}\Lambda^ \mu\quad\text{ at } R^ \mu,\;\mu=\mu(t)=\sum^ n_{j=1}t_ j\mu_ j\text{ for } t \text{ small }, \] where the superscript \(\mu\) indicates quantities associated to \(R^ \mu\). \(L^ \mu\mu_ j\) defines the coordinate vector field \(\partial/\partial t_ j\) for \(R^ \mu\). In order to show that for \(m\in\mathbb{N}^ n\), \[ (\partial^{| m|}/\partial t^ m)g_{i\bar j}\mid_{t=0}=(\partial^{| m|}/\partial\bar t^ m)g_{i\bar j}\mid_{t=0}=0, \] the variation of \(\Lambda,P\) and other quantities by a deformation \(f^ \mu:R\to R^ \mu\), \(\|\mu\|\) small, are calculated, and since all of them are real analytic functions on Banach spaces the computations are made for the \(m\)-th functional \(\partial\)- and \(\overline\partial\)-derivative \((m=\) a positive integer) of the pullback by \(f^ \mu\). It is obtained that \[ ((f^ \mu)^*\Lambda^ \mu)^{(m)}=0\quad \text{ and } (\langle P^ \mu L^ \mu\nu,\;P^ \mu L^ \mu\rho\rangle^ \mu)^{(m)}=0, \] and similarly for \((\overline m)\), the last relations for \((m)\) and \((\overline m)\) being deduced from a series of important Lemmas and their Corollary: \[ (f^*_{-2}P^ \mu L^ \mu\nu)^{(m)}=0\quad\text{ and }\quad (f^*_{-2}P^ \mu L^ \mu\nu)^{(\overline m)}\bot S_{Harm}(-2),\;\mu,\nu,\rho\in S_{Harm}(-2). \]